The fifth tournament of the series takes place Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Los Angeles and will see the Blitzboks also face Canada for the first time in the 2020 series, but will find familiar foes in Kenya, with their match against fellow Africans their fourth of the series.

The Blitzboks faced them in Dubai (17-12), Cape Town (17-5) and Hamilton (14-36), where Kenya scored a famous win over the Blitzboks. The tournament opener could deliver another close encounter between the two sides.

Unlike the New Zealand and Australian legs of the World Series, the Los Angeles event will be a men's only affair and will therefore revert to the format where the top two teams in each pool qualify for the quarterfinals. Pool A and D will cross over while the top two in each of Pool B and Pool C will meet in the last eight of the playoffs.

The pools for the HSBC LA Sevens are:

Pool A: Fiji, Argentina, France, Korea

Pool B: South Africa, Ireland, Canada, Kenya

Poo C: USA, Australia, Scotland, Samoa

Pool D: England, New Zealand, Wales, Spain

Meanwhile, the Blitzboks had a productive weekend in Sydney, scoring 23 tries in their five matches, with Angelo Davids (8) and JC Pretorius (6) the team’s top  try scorers. Davids (40) was also the leading points' scorer for the Blitzboks.

Selvyn Davids, who scored four tries, notched up 36 points on the weekend, however, Justin Geduld (83) is still the leading points' scorer so far this season, followed by Selvyn Davids (72).

Angelo Davids and JC Pretorius have each scored 11 tries and they are followed by Selvyn Davids (8) in third place.

The Blitzboks are second to log leaders, New Zealand, in the try-scoring stakes so far. The Kiwis have scored 90 compared to the Blitzboks’ tally of 77 and the South Africans are followed by Fiji (73), England (64) and USA (63).